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Arizona politicians demand action on influx of immigrants

As federal officials continue to ship hundreds of undocumented adults, families and unaccompanied minors into Arizona and questions surrounding their fate continue to mount, state politicians are demanding action.

As federal officials continue to ship hundreds of undocumented adults, families and unaccompanied minors into Arizona and questions surrounding their fate continue to mount, state politicians are demanding action.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith will meet today with Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino and talk with reporters about the federal government's "ill-advised policy" of transporting unaccompanied minors from Texas to Arizona. Smith, the former mayor of Mesa, will also call for Congressional hearings to trace the origin of "this immigrant dumping policy."

Republican state Treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery held a tele-town hall Monday night to suggest federal officials could face state child abuse charges if they have abandoned unaccompanied children at bus stations. There is currently no evidence that is occurring.

State Rep. Rosanna Gabaldón, D-Sahuarita, Rep. Stefanie Mach, D-Tucson, and Rep. Demion Clinco, D-Tucson, visited the Nogales, Ariz., facility where the children are being held, and issued a joint news release Monday saying Arizona has a moral responsibility to assure the children are being properly cared for.

Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City, sent a letter to Gov. Jan Brewer suggesting the Arizona National Guard and county sheriffs be used to secure the state borders with surrounding states and prevent the buses from entering Arizona.

But according to the Governor's Office, there is little any state official can do.

"One thing has been made clear to the state: this is a federal operation from head to toe and they have no intention to terminate it in the foreseeable future," Brewer spokesman Andrew Wilder said in an e-mail. "As Gov. Brewer has stated, this is a crisis of the federal government's creation. Until the border is secured, this crisis will continue and magnify beyond belief."

"I think the bigger question is what's going to happen going forward with our federal government and what can the state do to stop this?" Ducey asked during his tele-town hall, offering no answer to the question.

Later he said Arizona is justified in seeking recourse.

"This is what I'm talking about when I talk about Arizona taking charge of its own destiny," he said "What I'm doing to fight this frustrating action is to run for governor."

Montgomery said federal officials have said unaccompanied minors are being kept at a federal facility in Nogales and are not among those dropped of at bus stations. But he said if law enforcement discovers federal officials have dropped off a child in such a way, they could face state child abuse charges.

"If they were to drop off someone under 16 in the middle of the day, with temperatures in excess of 104 degrees, without food, water, shelter, they would quite likely be committing class 4 felony child abuse," he said. "And simply asserting you are a federal official does not give you immunity from violating the law. They are going to face the likelihood of prosecution and conviction."

Separate from that, Montgomery admitted, there is little the state can do.

The tele-town hall came a day after Ducey sent a letter to Montgomery asking him to explore possible solutions might be available. Ducey's letter to Montgomery prompted questions from his opponents about whether the request — and response a day later — was orchestrated to generate publicity for Ducey.

"(Ducey) saw a parade and is trying to run to the front of the line," said Max Fose, campaign manager for Smith. "It's one more gimmick from Doug Ducey — it's not leadership, it's political pandering from a candidate who's short on ideas."

Ducey's campaign refused to answer questions about who advised him on his letter to Montgomery.

However, Montgomery, a close political ally who is campaigning for Ducey, told The Arizona Republic he had told Ducey's campaign to send him a letter articulating the type of legal options they wanted advice on, adding he would do the same for anyone asking for information in his role as county attorney.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Christine Jones has also weighed in on the issue. On Sunday, Jones released a statement urging compassion towards "those who have been made victims" and added border security must be a priority. She stated the federal government's "inaction has undermined our immigration system and set a precedent for continued lawlessness."

Democrat Fred DuVal, meanwhile, tweeted on May 29, "Rather than dropping immigrant families off at bus stations, we need Congress to get back to work and pass CIR (Comprehensive Immigration Reform) now."

At the same time, Horne's office since last week has been researching whether the state can pursue civil or criminal remedies.

"The attorney general is outraged over the possibility that children have been transported and essentially abandoned with no basic human necessities such as food and water," a statement from Horne's spokeswoman said. "At the very least for right now, we hope that qualified professionals will do an inspection of the facilities in which the children are being held."

Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton said conviction of a federal official would be unlikely.

"If the theory is that federal authorities are shipping minors to Phoenix and somehow that this is child abuse of some kind it is certainly within his (Montgomery's purview to consider that concern," Charlton told The Republic. "But the likelihood of a conviction is slight, in my mind, because you would have to show that the individuals who were involved at the federal level knew what they were doing was wrong. I suspect all were acting within the scope of their employment and with the approval of their supervisors."

Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said generally, local prosecutors have the ability to charge federal government workers as long as it's not exclusively within the federal domain.

"I've got to tell you, it's strikingly unusual," Romley said. "I can't remember a time when there's been such a threat even given to federal officials. You're going to threaten a bus driver (for transporting children) with potential child abuse? They're basically doing their job."

Wilder said Brewer spoke Saturday with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson about the shipping of immigrants into Arizona and continues to ask questions of federal officials, notably their plans to handle detained children and to prevent the numbers from soaring even higher.

"If the effort and resources being expended by the feds to respond to this crisis were applied to securing the border, we wouldn't see a crisis like this to begin with in Arizona, Texas and other states," he said.